


Death and the Maiden

by LadyStrangeandUnusual (Dream_Wreaver)



Category: Beetlejuice (Cartoon 1989), Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Happy Ending, Just something I wanted to write, Light Angst, beetlebabes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24252079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Wreaver/pseuds/LadyStrangeandUnusual
Summary: A retrospective on one of the most sweetly spooky couples this side of life and death
Relationships: Beetlejuice/Lydia Deetz
Comments: 5
Kudos: 56





	Death and the Maiden

**Author's Note:**

> I promise that I am working on the other unfinished pieces, I just had a lot of feels and wanted to write this to get it out of my head. Hope you enjoy!

It’s not that Lydia Deetz is obsessed with death. It’s more accurate to say that death is obsessed with her. And how could it not be? So few mortals have an understanding of their own mortality. So few of them retain that intrinsic belief that there is existence beyond that of the mortal coil, that souls are things far from transient energies, and that those now made of nothing more than memories can and do stick around. Lydia Deetz is a girl who finds beauty in all things, from the most grotesque and ghoulish to that any other mortal might find the beauty in. But Lydia prefers the strange, the unusual, the unorthodox. Picturesque scenes of fungus growing on a fallen tree, of ivy reclaiming the monument to a soul long since dearly departed and forgotten, of a spider spinning on its web. As she grows there is very little in the normal world that inspires her as that which defies normality.

This is a sentiment aided by her best friend. A soul long since damned and past the threshold of life. The Neitherworld is a strange place. A paradox of life and death. Or perhaps it is merely an existence eeked out of memory and magic, there is no one old enough to truly say. Beetlejuice is older than most, his parents older still than him. And yet he remains far more lively than any living person she’s ever met. He’s not the best man in any world, neither his nor hers, but he is the best friend she could ever ask for. He inspires her confidence, supports her unconditionally, and will do for her what he would do for no other. In return she acts as his conscience, his guiding light. When selfishness and cowardice takes over she’s there to gently (and not so gently if need be) remind him what path he should take. Theirs is a symbiotic, if not a little co-dependent relationship, one’s existence feeling incomplete without the other’s.

She is cheery and optimistic where he’s dour and cynical. He’s cautious of cons where she unconditionally attempts to believe the best in people. She is life where he is death. And yet, they manage to make it work. Where time should mean nothing to a creature as old as Beetlejuice, he remembers. Birthdays, anniversaries, occasions that were she anyone else people might mistake for deeper affection. But Lydia is young, she simply believes that this is just what best friends do. It’s not as if she has any other people as close to her to compare their relationship to. She is a child when she regards her feelings, she is much older when she realizes the truth. Lydia has always known what wearing a ring on one’s right finger has meant, in the living world at least. Beetlejuice had told her it was a promise ring when he’d given it to her, a promise of friendship that would last beyond life. But Beetlejuice lies, and deceives, though when it comes to her he never does so with the intent to be malicious.

Still, it’s hard not to connect the dots when she thinks back on all the memories they have. And all the men who have come and gone. Stopping her wedding to bovine outlaw Bully the Crud, sabotaging a date with Prince Vince, his gagging at what she had thought were Boris’ simple gesture of gentlemanly manners and his jealousy over her admiration of Wormy Squirmer. He saw them as rivals for her time and affection. But she often has to wonder if even he knew it, since his excuse was that he was worried she was going choose those men as best friends over him. It could have been honesty, or it could have been clever wordplay. She may have liked all things spooky and weird, but Lydia was no stranger to the adage that one’s partner should also be their best friend. That they should know everything about you, your most authentic self. And for Lydia, there’s no one who knows her better than Beetlejuice, no one who is as willing to stand by her and support her. No one who is constantly willing to tell her she is perfect by being herself, with no changes needed. She knows that’s not entirely true, but she also knows that he means she does not need to change herself to suit the opinions of anyone else.

The older Lydia grows, the more she grows to realize her relationship with the Ghost with the Most is not what one might consider normal for a couple of best friends. Really, she should have realized it the more people confused her for his romantic partner; something which if she really was nothing more than his best friend should have warranted a response, of some kind. But she’d always chosen to ignore it, had felt a secret thrill that people saw her as a viable interest to him in that way. It also explained the jealousy she felt hearing about the other girls he’d had eyes for, the ones he flirted with while on their adventures, the eyerolls, the anger that he found time to flirt while she was stuck doing all the work that coming along with him always seemed to rope her into. And from there grows her desire to make him notice her as more than just his babes. She could have found someone willing to help bring down the corrupt mayor Beetlejuice. Some femme fatale to prove him fatal. But she’d volunteered, perhaps a bit too eagerly as she’d seen the looks Jaques and Ginger had exchanged as she had laid out her plan. And Lydia had relished in the attention he’d given her then, so different with the change of outfit and the anonymity of the veil. The way a man treated a woman, however sleazy it may have been she found it endearing.

Thankfully, despite every obstacle, they manage to end up together. Someone confesses, though neither she nor he can every quite remember who did it first. It doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that they're together, just like always. Of course, with every obstacle hurdled, there were about five more waiting to take its place. The course of true love never did run smooth you know. But it seemed like the longer they were together, the more accidents occurred; the more near misses, the more tragedies almost occurred. Beetlejuice wasn't one to believe in fate or a higher power -he was dead and already knew what ran the world- but he couldn't help but feeling that there was something more than simple misadventure and it's hazards going on here.

The changes also began to affect Lydia. Despite seeming fine and physically fit as ever, she certainly doesn't look it. While still absolutely drop dead gorgeous, her pallid skin took on more of a waxy texture, the the shadows in her eyes grew deeper and more pronounced, and she began to look far more dead than she did alive. He wondered if it had something to do with him, with _them_. A relationship that broke the boundaries of life and death was unheard of, and there were consequences for everything. He wanted to be selfless, since she alone could inspire it in him. He offered to let her go, to be nothing more than companions once again, until she was ready to cross over and be with him forever, for real. But though she was as sweet and giving as any human could possibly be, Lydia was also selfish. The human kind of selfish, of wanting to protect and nurture this unearthly happiness she has found. Of wanting to hold onto her beloved.

In the end, he's not there when she goes. Young and tragic, though not quite as young as she would have had it not been for his own intervention. He wanted to be there, he knew she would have called him had she known. Very few humans her age are ever ready to embrace death. But then, Lydia has already embraced it -through him- multiple times. He promised her he would wait for her to die before asking her anything more. That she would be a permanent part of this world before he made it official she would be a permanent part of his. But he had hoped he would be able to watch her live a long if not full life before that. That he would be able to watch the transition, be there and hold her through it all. Instead, he receives a phone call from the Bureau of New Arrivals that there is someone waiting for him there. But the only breather he knows is…

Lydia sits there in the waiting room, looking not as upset as he thinks she should. She's still so young, not even half a century hold when it happens, barely above a quarter in fact. And he's angry. He wants to lash out, destroy something. No one have taken life from her. But Lydia has already made peace with it, as she later tells him on their ride back to the roadhouse, there is no question it's where she’ll be staying.

“I knew it was coming Beej,” she says softly, when they're alone after Jacques and Ginger both lament the living world’s loss of such a wonderful soul and welcome her to the Neitherworld permanently.

“So why didn'tcha call me then babes?”

“Life has… been done with me for a while,” Lydia admitted, “I always knew. I felt it after the first time we-” she cuts herself off and looks away shyly, and though she can no longer blush he can sill within his mind’s eye see the dusky pink color lightly brushing over her cheeks. But she quickly composes herself and puts a hand against his chest, “I chose you, and I chose Death. And I don't regret it, not one bit.”

“Y’shouldda had more time,” Beetlejuice grumbled as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

But Lydia merely smiles softly and presses a kiss against his cheek, “I have all the time in the world now,”

He can scarcely believe that she’s here for good now. So the day their wedding comes is almost like a dream. They'd been planning it for months, but the way Lydia looks in her red dress and spiderweb veil (something new, a gift from Ginger) with the ring he gave her (her something old) waiting to be transferred from one hand to the other. Beetlejuice has even spruced himself up for the occasion, donning some marginally cleaner clothes so he can look his best while still remaining true to himself, the way she loves him. Her hands are just as cold as his as he holds them, but the warmth he can feel inside himself more than makes up for it, even if it does make him want to retch; just a little bit.

Her “I do,” is all at once a breathy sigh of elation and a firm statement of fact. That she takes him, as he is, and cows to be with him forever. His own excitement is so great he actually responds with the incorrect words, earning an affectionate giggle from her as he practically jumps for joy.

When they are pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Juice, he spins her into an exaggerated dip as he claims her once and for all. They greet the assembly of friends and family with huge smiles, to raucous applause and cheers. The reception is a party the likes of which the Neitherworld hasn't seen in centuries. But not a single person minds, nor dares to sabotage the proceedings. Getting Beetlejuiced on a normal day is bad enough, no one wants to imagine the hell they'd pay for ruining the happiest day of the ghoul’s afterlife. They cut the cake, a massive tiered confection made of beetles, frosting, and eye scream and shove it into one another's face, laughing uncontrollably all the while. Beetlejuice is happier than he has ever felt. But who could blame him? Lydia is inarguably, unbreakably his. And Death finally has his maiden.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time


End file.
